Monthly Archives: April 2017

I have a love-hate relationship with Bluetooth, especially headsets. As a regular gym-goer, I like the convenience that they offer, which by-and-large outpaces wired earbuds. However, most are not as reliable, lose connection, and don’t have the best sound quality. Despite all of this, I see more Bluetooth sound devices these days than wired ones. The neckband style especially (think Powerbeats) is gaining in popularity — they’re all over the gyms, hiking/mountain biking trails, and sidewalks.

If you have been waiting for a deal on the dual-sim variety of the Galaxy S8, then you are in luck. Whether you need it for travel, work, or novelty, availability is starting to pick up. Right now over at eBay, you can grab the dual-sim Exynos version for a cool $ 730, and the Qualcomm variant runs $ 820, both of which are less than the inflated prices at places like Amazon.

Kodi, formerly known as XBMC, is an open-source media player that is available on a variety of platforms – including Android. If you use Kodi on your Android TV, you’ll be happy to know that the next major release will support Leanback suggestions and voice search.

This means that Kodi will fill the home screen of Android TV with content suggestions from your library, much like YouTube and Google Play Movies. And as you can probably guess, the voice search functionality means you can ask to play anything in your Kodi library from Android TV’s Google search (it will not return results from add-ons).

Alphabet, every AP reader’s favorite umbrella corporation for their favorite company, has posted the results of their first 2017 quarter’s earnings. Things are looking pretty good, too. Revenue and income are both up from the same period last year, even though Alphabet’s tax rates have increased.

Just as a preliminary aside, for the purposes of this article I’ll be using the names Alphabet and Google interchangeably. This isn’t accurate, since Alphabet is involved in a lot of business outside of Google, but it’s a reasonable convenience to think of them interchangeably.

It might not matter how high the DPI on a screen gets cranked by each new model if you have trouble seeing it. Thankfully we have Google’s TalkBack, Android’s accessibility service for the blind and disabled. It reads what’s on your screen, but it also provides feedback for actions allowing users to fully interact with their device. Now the latest update has left beta after a few months of testing, bringing with it even more features, like verbosity (an adjustment for how much or little content it reads, based on your preferences), character counts for password fields, and a new Select to Speak service that allows you to tap content to hear it spoken, and more.

Several car manufacturers have announced their support for Android Auto recently, including Citroën and Peugeot. Chevrolet and Vauxhall are up next, with a large amount of 2017 and 2018 models from both companies receiving Android Auto.

First up, here are the newly-supported Chevy cars:

2017 Aveo

2017 Bolt EV

2017 Colorado/S10

2017 Cruze Hatchback

2017 Onix

2017 Prisma

2017 Sonic

2017 Trailblazer

2017 Trax

2018 Equinox

2018 Traverse

And the much shorter list of Vauxhall cars:

2017 Amper-e

2017 Crossland X

Some of these models may already have Android Auto – sometimes Google updates the lists after the cars themselves are updated.

Not all updates have to introduce a big feature to make a big difference. The latest version of Android Messages demonstrates just that. It includes a couple of relatively small changes to the way group messaging is set up and should be a little faster for most people, and might remove some confusion for a few.

The screen for creating a new conversation in earlier versions was geared in favor of group chats.

The market for camera-equipped doorbells is taken by three brands these days: Ring, Skybell, and August. Of the three, Ring has an interesting proposition thanks to a fleet of other products (stick-up camera and floodlight camera) that you can outfit your house with to stay within the same ecosystem. It also integrates with Samsung’s SmartThings and the Wink hub.

If that’s something you’re interested in and you don’t mind manually installing the doorbell and connecting it to your existing chime through electrical wires (there are tutorials for that), then you might want to check out the Ring Pro on Amazon today.

Normal wall outlets are great and all, but ones with integrated USB ports can be very handy. If you feel like breaking out the screwdriver and upgrading the plugs in your home, you can grab the Legrand/Pass & Seymour wall outlet with USB ports for $ 8.99 – a whopping $ 19 off the original price.

Both the USB ports provide a total of 3.1 amps of charging capacity, so this should be able to charge larger devices like tablets just fine.

Let me start this off with the obvious: Sonos is a pretty legendary name these days. The company’s product portfolio is pretty simple and easy to navigate, but each item serves a few specific purposes that help potential buyers decide which one to purchase. The selection of speakers, soundbars, and amps all fulfill different audio needs, whether you want a multi-room setup like Artem and/or a stellar surround sound experience.

But in order to reach those who do not wall-mount their televisions, Sonos has come up with its own version of a soundbase.